The San Jose Sharks played what was probably their most complete game of the season Wednesday night as a 5 goal first period lifted the Sharks to a 7-2 hammering of the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Sharks clicked offensively, and also defensively (outside of a very brief laps late in the first period). 11 Sharks players ended the evening on the score sheet with either a goal or an assist as team teal outshot Tampa 43-24. Antti Niemi had a good evening too, making 22 saves, including some key saves early before the Sharks went on their rampage. The Penalty Kill? They were four for four on the evening. Assists? Joe Thornton, Michal Handzus and Ryane Clowe had two apiece amongst others.
With the win the Sharks improved their season mark to 18-10-3 for 39 points, tying Dallas in the Pacific Division standings. The Sharks win combined with the Stars losing at home to Philadelphia 4-1 gives the Sharks the top spot in the Pacific Division and the #3 spot in the Western Conference standings (trading places with Dallas who now sits at 8th). The Sharks are 3 for 3 on this six game home stand to end the 2011 calendar year. However, note the next three games will bring with them a few litmus tests for the Sharks to pass with the likes of the L A Kings, the Arch Rival Anaheim Ducks who always play the Sharks tough regardless of their own record, and ofcourse the Vancouver Canucks for whom teal teal owes a few to. If the Sharks can capture all three of these upcoming games, this could be the spring board and jolt they need to go into 2012 all systems go and guns blazing.
Recaping Wednesday Night:
Greased Lightning – To say the Sharks got off to a good start in quite an understatement. The good thing was that most people were seated by the time the Sharks explosion began in earnest. Benn Ferriero, just back from Worchester, got the festivities started with his own impressive effort. Ferriero’s ability to hunt down and stay with the puck came up huge as he was able to follow it around the traffic in front of Tampa goalie Mathieu Garon. Ferriero from there got to the puck and stuffed in a rebound off the left post and on into the net for a 1-0 Sharks advantage. A minute later Joe Pavelski got into the act and launched a backhanded shot that went topshelf over Garon and into the net for the Sharks second goal. But wait, team teal was just getting warmed up.
Andrew Desjardins just 90 seconds later slid the puck past Garon after taking a pass from Andrew Murray for a 3-0 Sharks lead. At this point, Lighting Coach Guy Boucher called time out, read his team the riot act and went to the bullpen to replace Garon in goal with veteran Dwayne Roloson. Shortly thereafter, Logan Couture introduced himself to Roloson by scoring two goals within a 94 second span later in the period. The Sharks were up 5-0, and life was good for the evening. The Sharks though may have gotten caught a bit off guard with the large lead as the defense would breifly get caught napping. Dominic Moore got the Lighting on the board with a goal late to cut the Sharks lead to four. However, maybe Moore’s goal actually worked in the Sharks favor as they seemed to be very refocused after that and put the clamps on the Lighting for the rest of the evening.
The second period saw the Sharks again dominate and even though they didn’t score, they had several more chances and continued to pepper and break down the Lightning on both sides of the ice. The Lightning in the period also had some chances of their own, but Niemi was more than up to the task and saved all 15 Tampa shots on goal. Roloson not to be outdone stopped 19 Sharks shots on the net. The third period saw the Sharks just continue to push the Lighting hard and again were dominant throughout the period, outshooting Tampa 11-4. Brent Burns scored 1:15 into the period as he took a faceoff at the left point above the blue line and drilled a laser past Roloson, who probably knew it was coming yet never saw it until it hit the twine in back of the net. Patrick Marleau would add the Sharks 7th goal of the evening later in the period as a puck that bounced off of him and the net fell below and was kicked in by Roloson’s skate. Martin St.Louis added a goal for the Lightning midway though the period, but the damage for Tampa was long since done.
Can the Sharks use this performence to build on in upcoming games? Certainly, however the key for the Sharks is to come into games as focused as they were last night and as they have been for this home stand so far. With some tough games on the horizon for the rest of the home stand, plus the first week of January 2012, the Sharks really need to focus and have their game fine tuned as they move towards the “halfway mark” of this season.
King Sutter – The Sharks will next turn their attention to the Los Angeles Kings (15-14-4, 34 points and 11th in the Western Conference as of this writing). The Sharks and L A Kings have split their first two meetings this season, the Sharks defeating the Kings 4-2 at the Tank on Nov 7th. Three weeks later the Kings returned the favor and treated the Sharks to an evening of pure frustration as goalie Jonathan Quick pitched a shutout in a 2-0 win for L A. Much has changed with the Kings since that last Nov 28th meeting at the Staples Center, including the firing of Head Coach Terry Murray on Dec 12th and replacing him with former Sharks and Flames Head Coach Darryl Sutter. Sutter is known to be a demanding task master and his job in part will be to get the Kings back to an area where they are meeting expectations, set in part from their successes from last season.
The Friday Night meeting with the Sharks will be the Kings second game under Sutter, as L A will host the Anaheim Ducks first on Thursday Night at the Staples Center. The Kings in edition will bring their lineup which Sutter may be able to jump start, including Anze Kopitar, Drew Dougty and Jack Johnson who have had various struggles this season. I cannot imagine that these three will be struggling much longer as they all will eventually breakout, and when they do they’ll be tough to stop. Others such as Mike Richards, Dustin Brown, Simon Gagne, Justin Williams have been fairly steady this season. Kopitar, for his struggles still has 10 goals for the Kings while Richards has 11 to lead the team. J Quick has done the lions share of the work in net and has a 13-10-4 mark, however he also has 4 shutouts (one witnessed by team teal). This will be a good match up and for the Sharks they’ll need to be sharply focused as the Kings despite the turmoil are still a very dangerous team, and maybe even more so with Sutter now behind L A’s bench.
Havlet’s Hammy – The Sharks unfortunantely received some bad news regarding Martin Havlet as he will miss the next 6-to-8 weeks after having surgery to repair a partially torn tendon on his left hamstring. The injury appeared to have occured during the Sharks game with the Edmonton Oilers this past Saturday Night. Havlet left the ice after a shift during the game in obvious discomfort. For the Sharks, this means “Next Man Up” and hopefully the Sharks will be able to navigate without Havlet until late February/early March…
GO SHARKS, BEAT L.A.!!!
The King Shark
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